Goblin Mechanic
Goblin Mechanic — The Encounter
Goggle-eyed tinker of bolt, spring, and spite · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Goblin Mechanic
Every warband that fields siege-rams and powder-kegs keeps a Mechanic alive only as long as its devices keep working. These goblins are tinkers by obsession rather than training, scavenging cogs from broken portcullises, fuses from looted miners' charges, and springs from anything that once held tension. Their workshops are middens of stolen parts, and their reputation is built less on competence than on the spectacular failures of rivals who tried the same. A Mechanic is courted by chieftains and feared by its own kind, for it alone knows which barrel is a bomb and which is merely a stool. It fights from the rear, hurling sputtering charges and patching the war-engines its fellows ride, and it flees the instant a battle turns, certain the warband cannot win without it. Most are right. The wise ones keep a second escape tunnel rigged to collapse behind them.
Run Goblin Mechanic in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the back line The Mechanic never wants melee. Keep it 30+ ft. away behind raiders and let it sling Sputter-Bombs at clusters.
- Open with a bomb First round, hurl a Sputter-Bomb into the tightest group of PCs for splash fire, then bonus-action Disengage or Hide.
- Kill-priority: the closer It targets whoever rushes it, dropping smoke and quick-patches to survive one more round of throwing.
- When bloodied It cuts its losses, lights a misfire as a distraction, and flees down a pre-rigged tunnel rather than die for the warband.
- Three ways to run it Saboteur (jam doors and engines), artillery (pure bomb-lobber), or coward-genius (keeps the boss's war-machine alive, runs the moment it cannot).
Goblin Mechanic
Small humanoid (goblinoid), neutral evil
CR 2 · 450 XP · GUIDELINENimble Escape. The mechanic can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Jury-Rigged Devices. The mechanic carries a bandolier of improvised contraptions. Once on each of its turns, when it hits with a wrench or hurls a device, it may add 1d6 fire damage as a spark-charge detonates. Its gadgets are unstable: on a natural 1 with any attack, a device misfires and the mechanic takes 1d6 fire damage.
Actions
Multiattack. The mechanic makes two attacks with its heavy wrench, or one wrench attack and one bomb toss.
Heavy Wrench. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8+2) bludgeoning damage.
Sputter-Bomb. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) fire damage, and a creature within 5 ft. of the target takes 3 (1d6) fire damage.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Quick Patch. As a bonus action, the mechanic re-rigs a nearby device or jams a foe's weapon; the next attack roll against the mechanic before its next turn has disadvantage.
A grease-smeared goblin in cracked aviator goggles brandishes a spanner like a holy relic, a tool-belt of half-stable bombs swinging at its hip.
Goblin Mechanic, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINETinker's Insight (signature). Once per short rest, Goblin Mechanic can rig a trap or jam a lock as an action, imposing disadvantage on the next save or check a chosen foe makes against an environmental hazard within 30 ft.
Actions
Spanner Jab. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage.
Reactions
Smoke Pop. When a creature it can see hits an ally within 10 ft., Goblin Mechanic cracks a smoke-vial; the attacker is blinded until the end of its next turn (Con save DC 12 negates).
A wide-eyed apprentice goblin who carries the spare bombs and prays none of them are leaking.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Open at range with Sputter-Bombs at clustered PCs, then Nimble Escape behind cover every turn. Kill-priority is anyone closing to melee. Pair it with goblin raiders who screen it and a war-engine it can keep running.
Lob bombs into the densest knot of foes, patch a bigger ally's mount or engine each round, and disengage from melee with bonus actions. Run it as the saboteur behind a flagship boss, never alone.
Saturate the field with chained Sputter-Bombs and keep a lair's traps armed. Anchor it inside a goblin king's warren with minions; do not field it as a solo threat, as a party out-acts it.
Put Goblin Mechanic on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Goblin Mechanic?
It is built as a CR 2 add-on at its native Tier 1 (AC 14, HP 45). The stat block also gives Tier 2 (~CR 6) and Tier 3 (~CR 11) versions so you can scale it to your table; the traits stay identical and only the numbers move.
Can Goblin Mechanic be a companion or ally?
Yes. A captured or bribed Mechanic makes a fine sapper-for-hire, rigging traps and tending the party's siege gear. Use the bound companion Sprocket as a lighter ally version, or run the Mechanic itself as a nervous, self-interested hireling who bolts at the first real danger.
Is the Goblin Mechanic a spellcaster?
No. Every effect is mechanical, not magical, so it cannot be countered or dispelled. Its Jury-Rigged Devices add fire damage and its bombs are thrown weapons, meaning a Mechanic remains dangerous inside an antimagic field.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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